Greater Hudson Heritage Network is awarding $90,411 in conservation treatment grants to 22 organizations, located in 16 counties of New York State, in partnership with the
New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA).

From the eastern end of Long Island to Niagara Falls, these funds will provide treatment by professional conservators to aid in stabilizing, preserving, and making accessible to the public an array of unique objects in collections of New York State's museums, historical and cultural organizations of all sizes.

From New York City to the Adirondack foothills, 2017 grants will support conservation needs of the many types of artifacts typically found in art and history museums and historical societies throughout New York State, including a firefighter's helmet, 19th Century framed hair work flower arrangement, a 1850's cast-iron brick-set cooking range, collection of 1850 string geometric models, a glazed Della Robbia terracotta sculpture of the Virgin Mary, and a selection of works of art on paper, lithographs, paintings on canvas and decorative arts.

Grants are awarded for prioritized, urgently needed conservation of objects that, once treated, will impact public interpretive programs, exhibitions and education. Non-profit organizations with stewardship responsibility for cultural collections, (but without in-house conservation staff) were eligible applicants; state or federally owned collections are ineligible for support. Grant funding can treat paintings, works on paper, textiles, furniture, sculpture, ethnographic, historical and decorative objects, and may also support accompanying professional treatment of frames, supports, stands and mounts if integral to the final public presentation of the object, after conservation.

Greater Hudson Heritage Network strives to provide support for conservation treatments that are executed on the highest professional level. The field of conservation is continually changing, with pioneering research an dissemination of findings on innovative materials and techniques. Although there are many paths into the field of conservation, we acknowledge practitioners who have demonstrated high levels of proficiency and advanced knowledge, adherence to the ethics and standards of the American Institute of Conservation (AIC), and are recognized for their expertise in the museum field. In 2017's grants, treatment will be provided by 34 individual conservators.

These grants lead to public impact outcomes beyond the actual conservation of museum objects, including new interest in the state's incredibly varied collections, and increased public awareness of the museum's role as steward, and has proven a spark to further institutional, strategic, financial and long-range conservation planning. Beyond these outcomes, grant recipients report that Conservation Treatment funding prompts greater use of collections (for exhibition, web content and loan), enhanced interpretive capability, and expanded opportunities to educate the public about art, history, humanities, the science of conservation, and museum work, itself.

This year 53 grant applications were received at Greater Hudson Heritage Network from institutions from 29 counties in New York State, requesting an aggregate of $296,480 in grant support. In all, requests were made for the treatment of 122 objects of which 22 organizational awards totaling $90,411 were recommended by a peer panel of conservators, curators, and museum professionals. Of the 22 institutions that received funding,
15 received full funding and 7 partial funding. 2017 Conservation Treatment Grant awards range from $1,638 to the maximum amount of $7,500.

Of the 53 applicant institutions, twenty-five had budgets under $300,000, eleven had budgets over $300,000 but below $1 million and seventeen organizations had general operating budgets over $1 million. Organizational operating budgets of 2017's grant recipients span a stunning range from $5,677 to $27 million.

Conservation Recipients:

Castellani Art Museum of Niagara University

(Niagara County)

$2,500 for the conservation of oil on wood panel painting Moonlit Coastal Scene by Albert Pinkham Ryder (1847-1917); work to be done by conservator Tracy L. Dulniak.

Dansville Area Historical Society

(Livingston County)

$1,637 for the conservation of a large 1886 architectural drawing of Dansville Union School built in 1887; work to be done by conservator Gary E. Albright.

FASNY Museum of Firefighting

(Columbia County)

$4,452 for the conservation of the helmet of famous firefighter Harry Howard; work to be done by Rachael Perkins Arenstein and Eugenie Milroy of A.M. Art Conservation, LLC.

Fenimore Art Museum

(Otsego County)

$6,096 for the conservation of oil on canvas View of the Schoharie, 1826, by Thomas Cole; work to be done by Thomas J. Branchick from Williamstown Art Conservation Center.

Glens Falls - Queensbury Historical Association

(Warren County)

$2,375 for the conservation of 19th Century framed hair work flower arrangement passed down through the Jarvis Milliman family of Fort Edward, NY; work to be done by Gwen Spicer of Spicer Art Conservation, LLC.

Historic Cherry Hill

(Albany County)

$7,500 for the conservation of circular bas relief in cast plaster Morning by noted Albany sculptor Erastus Dow Palmer (1817-1904); work to be done by Helene C Gillette-Woodard and Christine Puza of Williamstown Art Conservation Center.

Hudson River Museum

(Westchester County)

$7,500 for the conservation of decorative plaster pedestal by Isidore Konti, part of a model for a fountain, known as The Brook (1901); work to be done by conservators Carolyn Riccardelli and Michael Morris.

King Manor Museum

(Queens County)

$7,500 for the conservation of an 1850s cast-iron brick-set cooking range, installed in the home under the auspices of Rufus King's son John Alsop King; work to be done by conservator Kerith Koss Schrager.

Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester

(Monroe County)

$2,420 for the conservation of the charcoal, pastel and pencil illustration Scarlet Letter and charcoal, black ink and water color painting The Garden of the Hesperides by M. Louise Stowell 1900; work to be done by conservator Patricia Hamm/Hamm Arts LLC.

Museum of the City of New York

(New York County)

$1,450 for the conservation of a selection of costume design renderings by Frances Feist created for musical revues performed at the Cotton Club between 1937 and 1939; work to be done by conservator Michelle Gewirtz Inc.

New Castle Historical Society

(Westchester County)

$3,220 for the conservation of an 1800 American sampler by New Castle resident Abigail Underhill; work to be done by conservator Rebecca Johnson-Dibb from The Textile Conservation Workshop, Inc.

New-York Historical Society

(New York County)

$2,480 for the conservation of a selection of drawings by Anne-Marguerite-Henriette Hyde de Neuville (ca.1761-1849); work to be done by conservator Clare Manias.

Niagara County Historical Society

(Niagara County)

$5,000 for the conservation oil on canvas painting of Alice Pomroy (Pomeroy) Kenan as a baby; work to be done by Tracy Dulniak from Great Lakes Art Conservation of NY LLC.

Old Westbury Gardens

(Nassau County)

$3,760 for the conservation of one red deer (cervus elaphus) shoulder mount; work to be done by Eugenie Milroy of A.M. Art Conservation and conservator George Dante.

Oneida Community Mansion House

(Madison County)

$1,169 for the conservation of 2 pen and ink drawing elevations by Lewis W. Leeds; work to be done by conservator Laura Schell.

Rochester Museum & Science Center

(Monroe County)

$6,410 for the conservation of a rare framed whole plate daguerreotype depicting a street scene in Rochester, New York c. 1850; work to be done by conservator Ralph Wiegandt.

Sherman Free Library

(Essex County)

$7,000 for the conservation painting entitled Crown Point by artist James Hope; work to be done by Emily Gardner Phillips of Phillips Art Conservation.

Sodus Bay Historical Society

(Wayne County)

$2,997 for the conservation of framed photograph of an iceboat on Sodus Bay, showing the champion racer from 1909-1911; work to be done by Luisa Casella, photograph conservator and Theodore Solum, frame conservator from West Lake Conservators.

The Fort Ticonderoga Association

(Essex County)

$2,750 for the conservation of World War I-era French fanion Section 5 flag of the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps, c.1916-1918; work to be done by Gwen Spicer from Spicer Art Conservation, LLC.

The Hyde Collection

(Warren County)

$7,500 for the conservation treatment of glazed terracottasculpture of the Virgin Mary by famed Italian Renaissance sculptor Andrea Della Robbia (ca. 1480); work to be done by Helene C. Gillette-Woodard from Williamstown Art Conservation Center.

The Long Island Museum of American Art, History & Carriages

(Suffolk County)

$2,940 for the conservation of oil on panel portrait of Thomas Shepard Seabury (1829-1880), 1855, by artist William Sidney Mount; work to be done by conservator Alexander Katlan.

Union College - Permanent Collection & Mandeville Gallery

(Schenectady County)

$1,800 for the conservation of a selection of Theodore Olivier's 1850's string geometric models; work to be done by conservator Christine Puza.